Christoph Siart

The Interface between Data Science, Research Assessment and Science Support - Highlights from the German Perspective and Examples from Heidelberg University

Assessment of research and acquisition of research information has become an integral part of university business. The motivation for obtaining such data can be ascribed to both internal and external demands. However, this raises questions about common standards and efforts for data capture, storage and provision. This paper aims at giving insight into some general framework conditions of data science and research assessment, along with the transfer of outcomes into the daily business of science support. Examples from Heidelberg University are presented.

Digital Geoarchaeology: An Approach to Reconstructing Ancient Landscapes at the Human-Environmental Interface

This paper aims to highlight the concept of digital archaeology, an approach to reconstructing ancient landscapes with special regard to human-environmental interactions. A broad variety of proper geoscientific, geo-informatic and archaeological methodologies is discussed, while special attention is paid to acquisition, quantity and quality of data as well as potentials and drawbacks of each application. Case studies from Central Crete demonstrate the particular suitability of remote sensing techniques, GIS-based analyses and landscape visualisations for this purpose. As shown by the results, digital geoarchaeological research provides access to new and hitherto unexplored datasets, which can be of great value for investigating archaeological questions. They shall not substitute profound archaeological expertise but support it in order to achieve a more comprehensive idea of palaeoenvironments. Digital geoarchaeology offers promising prospects for future studies combining geoscientific and humanistic know-how and constitutes a prosperous research field besides well-established physical geoarchaeology.

Digital Geoarchaeology: Bridging the Gap Between Archaeology, Geosciences and Computer Sciences

Modern archaeology increasingly crosses academic boundaries by combining different new methodologies in order to answer research questions about ancient cultures and their remains. Above all, the geosciences became an indispensable counterpart of archaeology and cultural heritage management. As to the investigation of past archaeological landscapes and palaeoenvironments, the term Geoarchaeology is commonly used, representing the utilization of traditional and the development of new geoscientific applications for archaeological purposes. In addition, computationally engaged research became absolute state of the art in modern archaeology, in geoscientific landscape reconstructions and in the deciphering of spatio-temporal interactions between man and nature. Despite this multidisciplinary constellation, the thematic and methodological overlap of humanities, natural sciences and informatics is frequently disregarded. It is beyond debate that multidisciplinary approaches, which especially emerge at the interface of adjacent subjects, substantially contribute to a better understanding of ancient landscapes, their forming processes and the resulting cultural heritage. They allow fusing complementary perspectives for the first time and therefore go far beyond unilateral research designs. Digital Geoarchaeology, which is to be established in this chapter as a new concept for the first time, can therefore be regarded as an intersection of disciplines that contributes to the consolidation of different academic perspectives. It represents a novel approach in terms of computer scientific methods combined with geoscientific know-how and archaeological expertise to multi-methodically investigate past human-environmental relationships. Accessing this multidisciplinary interface helps overcome potentially restricted, monodisciplinary perceptions and provides new forms of unbiased approaches for investigating the interplay of man and nature. Thus, closer collaboration and dialogue across disciplinary boundaries will offer promising prospects for future research at the human-environmental interface.

Merging the Views: Highlights on the Fusion of Surface and Subsurface Geodata and Their Potentials for Digital Geoarchaeology

A multi-method research design based on geophysical prospecting (electrical resistivity tomography, seismic refraction), DEM generation (terrestrial LiDAR and total station) and GIS is applied for the first time to investigate geoarchaeologically relevant sites in an integrated way. Fusing multi-resolution surface and subsurface geodata provides profound insights into the formation, geometry and geomorphologic processes of karst depressions which serve as geoarchives in the Mediterranean area. Case studies from different locations on Crete are provided. In order to define crucial methodological requirements and guidelines for data fusion, both the impact of different elevation models and different geophysical methods and the influence of data resolution are assessed. Different approaches are presented along with their advantages and shortcomings, highlighting the various options offered by combining surface and subsurface geodata.